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Wednesday, 25 January 2012

Belleau Smokery and Trout Farm

... i'm very proud to say that I have been commissioned to write a series of articles on Lincolnshire Food Heroes for Lincolnshire Life Magazine. The first of which comes out in the February edition, which should be on the shelves this weekend. Here is a sneak peek for those of you not in Lincolnshire...

Food lovers and particularly food writers will
often wax lyrically about 'local'. In fact over the past few years it has become
a little over-used and whilst the sentiment is there, for many of us it is nigh
on impossible to shop exclusively locally.It is often impractical, let alone expensive. I am guilty of using the
word myself, however one of the many glorious things about living in the
heart of the Lincolnshire countryside is exactly that, being at the very pulse
and life source of the produce that eventually makes its way to your table.

Belleau Bridge Trout Farm was established in
1975 supplying live fish for restocking reservoirs, waterways and rivers for
anglers. The Smokery itself was formed in 2008 to run alongside the live
fish business and is a dream come true for Simon Harrop, 3rd generation fish
farmer who runs the business with his wife Ginny and the farm could not be more
local for me as it is quite literally on my doorstep.

I met with Ginny on a cold, rainy December afternoon,
not the most evocative kind of weather for viewing a trout farm but I quickly
learn from her that the farm never stops working, apart from a few days over
Christmas, as the trout need constant attention; from receiving the eggs which
are purchased in the USA via the internet to the hatching, to the final gutting
and gilling.

Ginny had originally studied catering and
business studies at Leeds and had a successful career in property PR but in
answer to the recession she and husband Simon started the smokery business.Her dedication to creating the perfect smoked
trout saw her spend a week as an apprentice at a smokery in Somerset before
finding Malcolm Middleton an expert smoker and designer of a new style of smoke
machine who gave them their first smoker.They took a table at a food fair in Market Raisen and sold out in the
first hour!

From these humble beginnings they have quickly
become one of the largest trout farms in the Britain, supplying not only living
trout to restock rivers for fishing across the UK but also fresh and smoked products
to local restaurants, hotels and caterers.

For those of you unaware of this hidden part of
the County, Belleau, a small hamlet of 12 houses, is situated on the
South-Eastern edge of the Wolds, off the A16 between the market towns of Alford
and Louth with the Trout Farm nestling in 5 acres of bucolic countryside.

The life of the trout at the farm begins in The Hatchery at Belleau, it
is rather unique as it has a gravity fed water system starting with the natural
mineral spring pond filtering the water directly into the troughs of tiny pink
trout eggs. These eggs are all manually cared for by Simon who picks them over by
hand to make sure any empty or dead shells are discarded to avoid contamination
to the others. Once the eggs are hatched they are moved progressively into
larger tanks and raceways that are all spring fed.

In fact in the summer of
2007 Simon decided to open some of the original stone raceways first built by
his grandfather when they moved from Yorkshire and bought the farm back in the
1970’s.I have often walked past these raceways myself, always wondering
what they were used for and remember seeing Simon that summer, busy clearing
and preparing them for use.Sadly, it
was only a few weeks after they had finally opened these old raceways that we
had the dreadful floods that decimated the area, ruining many businesses, with
rivers bursting their banks and flooding the land.The Harrops lost thousands of small fish and
I even remember a few very large trout gasping for life as they lay trapped in
newly formed ponds in the middle of the meadow opposite my house.

After 3 months in the tanks the trout are then transferred
into earth dug ponds and graded by size to ensure they have the space to grow
and are hand fed the correct balance of food which is supplemented by the
abundance of fresh watercress and the natural flora of the river and spring
system.

Once the fish are up to size (it takes
approximately 14-15 months for a trout to grow to over one and half pounds in
weight) they are again graded by hand and transported in oxygen filled tanks
for live delivery to the fishing lake or river. For the smokery the same fish
are used in various sizes and are taken to the processing room on the farm
where they are prepared for smoking or packed in ice for sending out to the
markets, shops and wholesalers.

The Belleau Smokery make a small but well chosen
selection of produce that can be purchased direct from the farm or via their
excellent website and includes such delicacies as Hot and Cold Smoked Trout,
Fish Cakes and what I consider their piece de resistance, the Smoked Trout Pate.The dedication and passion with which the
Harrops run their farm is reflected in the quality of this incredible, natural
food and should be celebrated as a local produce worthy of a place at your
dinner table.

23 comments:

Congratulations on the commission for Lincolnshire Life. What a great outcome from your blog. After my attempts at hot smoking for the Random Recipe, this was very interesting. How fabulous to have this as a local producer, it's true I often find something labelled local on the shelf only to find it's made/grown at the other end of the country! Great piece. GG

What a great article, and a wonderful local resource. The only really local produce here is Richmond Park Honey, which I buy at the local deli and of course, we forage for local Elderflowers and Blackberries when in season! Good luck with Lincolnshire Life, I hope you'll share further articles.

Nice article, Dom... I love smoked trout. I wonder if the smokery that Ginny apprenticed at was Brown & Forrest ? I visited them a while back and did a short blog post too, delicious products including a fabulous lightly smoked black pudding, and of course, fish, eel and meats.

First, this is really well written. I can only hope some of my students will write as well someday. Second, I have never had smoked trout but will certainly look for it now. You have made it intriguing cuisine.

You always right a good post so I knew your article would be extremely interesting. Who knew owning a hatchery would involve so much hard work and dedication. I have only had smoked salmon so it might be interesting to try smoked trout sometime. I have seen it at the market and I will wait for the recipe before I decide to purchase a package. Nice job!

A fabulous article and WELL DONE you for scooping the commission for a few articles! We have a trout farm locally in N Yorkshire and I DO love stopping by there to pick up a couple of fresh or smoked trout for tea! Just posted a recipe on my blog for smoked trout as it happens!KarenXXXXCan't wait to see the recipes...

What a lovely piece, you must be so happy to be commissioned to write about all your favourite local food heroes. I love all things smoked and can't wait to see your recipe for smoked trout fishcakes :-)

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Welcome to my blog

My name is Dominic, I am a cook, food writer and creative event producer. I write the food blog Belleau Kitchen and also write a monthly recipe column for Lincolnshire Life Magazine and Good Taste Magazine. I also run creative event production company The Persuaders, producing global events for brands since 1997. I am based both in the small village of Belleau in Lincolnshire and the smaller village of London!